BEAUMONT, Texas – Fresh off a hard fought victory in the Southland Conference opener Wednesday, the Lamar University men's basketball team will look to make it two in a row Saturday when they step on the court at Prather Coliseum to take on Northwestern State. The Cardinals opened the conference slate with a scrappy six-point overtime victory over Southeastern Louisiana.
 
Winners in three of their past four games, the Cardinals (7-5/1-0 SLC) head to Natchitoches, La., looking to start the conference season 2-0. To do that LU will need to get past a tough opponent at a venue that historically has not been kind to the Red and White.
 
The Demons have struggled out of the gate to start the season posting a 2-7 (.200) overall record. They enter the weekend showdown having dropped four straight since a seven-point victory over Louisiana College last month. Northwestern State opened their Southland schedule with a 13-point setback to conference defending champion Sam Houston State.
 
Led by T.J. Atwood's 17 points per game, the Cardinals are averaging nearly 71 points per game.  Atwood is coming off a career-high 34-point effort over Southeastern Louisiana in the conference opener. Atwood also pulled down 10 rebounds and was one of two Cardinals to record a double-double in the Southland opener.
 
The Cardinals will also look to keep junior Avery Sullivan off to his strong start. Sullivan has recorded a team-high six-straight double-doubles including a double-double in each of the previous three games. He is averaging nearly 11 points (10.8 ppg) and just under 10 rebounds (9.9 rpg) per game in 2019-20.
 
Northwestern State averages nearly 67 points per contest, while surrendering nearly 79 to their opponents, but those numbers have been skewed by the Demons tough non-conference schedule. The Cards will look to slow down NSU's Chudier Bile who leads the team averaging 12.8 points per game.
 
The Cardinals hope this game will come down to a battle on the boards. Big Red leads the Southland pulling down just over 40 rebounds per game. Northwestern State is currently 11^th grabbing just over 35 rebounds per night.
 
The all-time series has recently swung back in favor of the Cardinals. Big Red is three-games over .500 (29-26) all-time against Northwestern. The Cardinals have won the past five meetings in the series and are coming off a five-point victory last season in Beaumont. However, Prather Coliseum has not been kind to LU over the years. The Cardinals are just 7-19 (.269) all-time against the Demons on the road.
 
The game will tip off at 3 p.m. Saturday from Prather Coliseum and can be heard live on Newstalk 560 KLVI.